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A day before the controversial inauguration of Georgian Dream loyalist Mikheil Kavelashvili as the country's new president, Georgian citizens demonstrate with pro-EU placards and Georgian, American, and European Union flags as they protest the government's decision to suspend European membership talks in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Dec. 28, 2024.
Georgia’s new president sworn in amid protests
On Sunday, Georgia inaugurated President Mikheil Kavelashvili amid growing demonstrations and accusations of election fraud perpetrated by Moscow. Kavelashvili, a former soccer player, was selected by a 300-member electoral college controlled by the ruling Georgian Dream party, which now dominates every major government institution.
Kavalashvili’s appointment comes a month after Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced a suspension of EU accession talks until 2028, a move welcomed in Moscow, but not on the streets of Tbilisi. Thousands of Georgians have demonstrated at the parliament building nightly since the country’s October elections, facing down riot police, water cannons, and tear gas, with hundreds detained and over 100 injured.
The opposition boycotted the election, and the previous President, pro-EU leader Salome Zourabichvili, has refused to step down despite being threatened with jail. While Zourabichvili has now vacated the presidential palace, she has not gone quietly. Speaking on a podcast Friday, she said: “This election, and hence the inauguration of the president, is not valid, so I remain president and I continue to do my job — that is what everybody has to know.”
This means the nation has reached yet another critical turning point, says Eurasia Group regional expert Tinatin Japaridze. “Georgia now has two presidents, yet only one is widely recognized by many Georgians and the international community as the legitimate leader.”
Georgia’s isolation from the West is no longer a looming threat but a reality orchestrated by Georgian Dream founder and “honorary chairman” Bidzina Ivanishvili. What further complicates matters, says Japaridze, is that Ivanishvili now faces unprecedented US Treasury sanctions. Meanwhile, US Congressman Joe Wilson has invited Zourabichvili to attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, recognizing her as Georgia’s “only legitimate leader.”
“The duration of this duality is uncertain,” says Japaridze, “but in light of ongoing protests demanding new elections and Western sanctions, it is evident that this crisis cannot persist indefinitely.”
Emergency workers extinguish fire in vehicles at the site of a Russian missile strike, amid Russia?s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine March 9, 2023.
What We’re Watching: Russian air strikes, South African economic squeeze, day of resistance in Israel
Russia pummels Ukraine
On Thursday, Russia launched a wave of early-morning air strikes with missiles and Iranian-made drones on Ukrainian cities, its worst attack targeting civilians in a month. At least six people died, and almost half of Kyiv residents were left without electricity. Meanwhile, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — Europe's largest — was knocked offlinefor the sixth time and is now operating on diesel power. It's unclear why Moscow did this or has waited so long, but perhaps the Russians are running so low on weapons and ammo that it's much harder to carry out coordinated attacks. For their part, Ukrainians living in urban areas have become so accustomed to the barrages that they are hardly intimidated, which is the whole point for Vladimir Putin. On the battlefield, Russia is still struggling to conquer Bakhmut, a key town in eastern Ukraine, amid an ongoing rift between the Russian military and top mercenary warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin.
South Africa’s shrinking economy
Things are going from bad to worse in South Africa. Amid a deepening energy crisis that’s plunged parts of Africa’s most industrialized nation into darkness for up to 15 hours a day, new figures show that the country’s economy contracted by 1.3% in the last quarter of 2022. (Analysts had anticipated a 0.4% squeeze). In a bid to address the deep-rooted energy crisis, President Cyril Ramaphosa this week tapped a new electricity minister, but members of the business community don’t appear to have been placated as fear remains high that Pretoria could be headed for a recession. For context on how corruption-plagued Eskom – the state-owned energy company that runs 90% of the country’s electricity – reached breaking point, and what effect this is having on South Africa’s economy, see this explainer. Crucially, South Africa's economy is just marginally bigger than it was four years ago (0.3%), but the population has grown by 3.5% since then, increasing pressure on ailing infrastructure.